


No Small Amount of Joy

by GamblingDementor



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Family Fluff, Gen, Kids!Shiganshina Trio, M/M, Minor Reiner Braun/Armin Arlert, Multi, Trans Character, Trans Male Character, Trans!Levi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-13
Updated: 2015-07-04
Packaged: 2018-03-12 04:55:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3344372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GamblingDementor/pseuds/GamblingDementor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erwin, Levi and Hange are in a committed relationship together and have three precious adopted kids: Eren, Armin and Mikasa. </p><p>Series of drabbles about their family life and the many interactions between them. No particular order. Not chronological. Contains trans!Levi, Mikasasha and Reimin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Like a hurricane crashed the house

**Author's Note:**

> Revamping the way this fic is presenting: every chapter will be a drabble about the life of these characters involving only a few of them at a time. 
> 
> Drabble 1: Levi alone. Kids are 17.

Levi pushed the door of the house open with great difficulty. Taking a look inside, he sighed. The floor was covered with litter, empty plastic glasses and alcohol bottles, dirty clothes, far more condoms than he deemed typical for a party presumably full of highschoolers and puddles of disgusting liquids, though what they were exactly, he did not even want to know. Possibly human fluids. He somehow managed to create a path through this filthy mess and made his way to the master bedroom. He unlocked it with a special key only he had a copy of and was glad to find it as clean as he'd left it five days prior. Good. He  _knew_  keeping their room's door locked would prove useful when they left the house to the teens. He'd have to call Erwin and tell him about that, and about the obvious party (or most probably parties) the three kids had thrown as soon as they'd been left alone for more than a day. Erwin had been the one doubting him when he'd said it would happen. In fact, he might as well do that right now. He took out his phone from his pocket and dialled his partner's number.

 

_You have reached Erwin Smith. I am unavailable at the moment. Please leave a message_   _and I will call you back as soon as possible._

 

He sighed — again. Trust Erwin to always be busy when you needed him. Well, if he couldn't reach Erwin for a good old " _I told you so_ ", he could at least call Hange and she would support him by confirming Erwin was a starry-eyed idealist with far too much trust in their teenagers and the world in general.

 

_Hey, what's up?_  
"Hange, guess what the brats did to..."  
_...i_ _ _s__   _what you would hear if I was actually on the line!_  
He almost threw his phone out of the window when he heard her stupid recorded giggle. Fucking crazy woman. He hung up without leaving a message.

 

He threw his suitcase on the bed and decided to put his things away to calm himself. Clothes and towels in the laundry, check (the bathroom was filthy and had never smelled so rancid, even that time many years ago when all six of them had been sick at the same time). Razor next to the sink, check (he was glad both he and Erwin had taken their razor with them − there could have been blood sprayed all over the house if they hadn't, judging by everything else). Shower gel, shampoo and conditioner in the shower booth, check. T patches in the bathroom cabinet, check. Book on the bed stand, check. Wallet into the interior pocket of the coat, check. Phone into the jeans pocket, check. Empty suitcase under the bed, check. All done. He walked out of the bedroom and was met once again with the disgusting stink of the hall, kitchen, living room, and pretty much every room other than their bedroom.  
"Tch."  
He grabbed his white apron, which fortunately he always kept in that special drawer in their bedroom and was therefore clean and smelled of fabric softener, wrapped it around his waist, put his cleaning bandana over his head and took a trash bag to start throwing away just about everything that covered the floor.

 

He knew, just  _knew_  that he should let the kids do this all as punishment. Just give them less than a week where all three of their parents are away, and they trash the home completely. They should be the ones to clean it. But they were at school, Erwin was still on his business trip abroad, Hange was still on her study field trip, and there he was, dealing with the mess on his own. He did it because he just could not stand to see their house in such a state. Eren, Armin and Mikasa would have to be punished at some point, but they would not be back for at least another three hours and he could not wait till they come home for them to start cleaning up the place. Soon the bag was filled, and another one after that, and he flooded the house with soapy water to get rid of the stench (not quite successfully, he had to admit), dusted every surface possible, rubbed everything clean, just to make the place look at the very least  _decent, so that_ by the time the three little shits came home, he'd make them clean everything again entirely just to be absolutely sure.


	2. The strongest in the world

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drabble 2: Armin (7) and Reiner (8) play in the sand and discuss important business.

Armin giggled, picked up the little plastic bucket and filled it with sand again.  
"What is it?" Reiner asked. "Why are you laughing?"  
"Just what you said," Armin answered and flattened the surface of the sand with his tiny shovel. "You're funny, Reiner."  
Reiner frowned, as he often did. Armin, satisfied with his flattening skills, flipped the bucket over to make the last tower of the castle they were building. He looked at their handywork and felt rather proud of the big castle they'd managed to make.  
"I wasn't joking."  
The bucket slipped from Armin's grasp and the sand spilled everywhere, as if the exterior tower of the castle had just been smashed. Armin stared at Reiner as the bigger boy took the bucket and began filling it again, building the tower that had been destroyed. What did he mean, he wasn't joking? How could he just say that then?!  
"How can you just say that then?!"  
Reiner slowly drew a little path within the inner walls with his finger, then looked up from his hard construction work.  
"Well, it's the truth."

 

Armin thought about what his supposedly  _best_   _friend_  was saying, then shook his head and snatched the bucket from him.  
"No, no, no, no, no! Your daddy is  _not_  the strongest man in the world!"  
Reiner's frown deepened.  
"Yes, he is! Have you seen how big he is? I'm gonna be as big and strong as him one day."  
Armin felt tears welling up in his eyes. Why was Reiner saying these things? Couldn't he  _see_  that daddy Levi was the strongest man in the world? It was so obvious.  
" _My_  daddy Levi is the strongest man in the world!" he shouted and threw the bucket at Reiner.  
Reiner's cheeks reddened in what seemed like anger and suddenly he stood up and Armin was almost afraid of him because he really  _was_  big and strong already.  
"In my family, we're as strong as warriors! Have you seen Bertolt? He's taller than your daddy and he's not even ten!"  
"But my daddy can carry all three of us at the same time and he could probably carry you and Bertolt too, and he can run faster than anyone else!"  
Armin  _knew_  what he was saying was the truth, he knew it because his mommy and his other daddy kept telling him and Eren and Mikasa that daddy Levi was the strongest man ever, because he'd seen his daddy train and train and train to be as strong as he was, and he really was, he was so strong he could just pick him up and throw him on his shoulder to put him to bed some days, and some other days, he did that to mommy and said it was because she was tired (his mommy was never tired, though, so Armin thought there was another reason but he'd have to enquire about it later). Reiner was a liar and a big meanie and he felt tears running down his cheeks and wondered when he'd started crying.  
"Well if your daddy's the strongest, let's see how he'll protect the castle from this!" Reiner shouted and started stomping on the walls of the sandcastle and on the gates and on the watchtowers and soon there was nothing left under his feet but a bunch of sand in a sandbox.

 

Armin didn't even bother hiding his tears now and his chest heaved with his sobs as he looked at the other boy, whose cheeks were still red and who was panting because he'd just destroyed  _everything_. They stared at each other and suddenly Reiner was on his knees hugging Armin close, rubbing his back and Armin sobbed into his shoulder.  
"I'm sorry, Armin."  
"You just…" he sniffed, "You ruined it, Reiner! You ruined it all!"  
"I'm sorry," he repeated and pulled him even closer, "I didn't mean to, I just got angry, is all."  
"You're mean, Reiner, you know that? You're mean!"  
"I'm sorry…"  
Armin was still so sad and so angry at Reiner, but after some time, his sobs quietened, his breath steadied itself and he stopped hating him. In the end, they decided they didn't need the walls anyway, and Reiner promised he would never say Levi wasn't the strongest man in the world again.


	3. A good cause

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drabble 3: Erwin received a call from school because Eren (14) got into a fight. Ride home is tense.

Eren threw himself onto the passenger seat and slammed the door shut. He was frowning. As dearly as Erwin loved his son, he sometimes wondered if he bore any expression other than ecstatic or extremely angry. He opened the door and sat behind the wheel, side glancing at Eren. The teen would not look at him. He inserted the key into the ignition and drove away from the school building.

 

After a few long minutes of awkward silence, he decided to break it.  
"You know, Eren, I am a little bit angry, but most of all I'm…"  
"Don't you dare give me the  _I'm not angry, I'm disappointed_  shit, Dad. I'm too old for that."  
"You're fourteen, Eren, you're not too old for anything."  
Eren snorted and looked away, glaring through the window. There was blood on his cheek. Erwin handed him a handkerchief, which he surprisingly accepted and rubbed his cheek clean.  
"I was going to say that most of all I'm surprised."  
Eren shrugged.  
"Well, it happened."  
"Usually Mikasa gets there before you hit anyone."  
"Mikasa's home sick, remember?"  
"Of course I remember. I was home with her before school called."

 

Eren still would not look at him, but somehow, Erwin sensed he would end up talking at some point. He eventually did talk, though not how Erwin expected.  
"Where are we going? You were supposed to turn right over there."  
Well, he supposed that was better than him saying nothing at all.  
"It's almost noon. We're going to Burger King."  
"You always say we should never eat fast food!"  
"I also always say you should never use violence. Seems like we both go against what I say today. And don't tell your mother I made an exception."  
Eren groaned but Erwin could sense the shadow of a smile behind his frown. It was cheap to buy the way to his son's trust through his stomach, but Erwin wasn't above such methods. And even though he was against fast food on principle, he did like Burger King too, as a guilty pleasure. Eating out together would do both of them some good. Mikasa would be just fine on her own for a little while.

 

"So," Erwin started when they put down their trays on Burger King's table, "Will you tell me what happened now?  
Eren sighed, ate a couple of fries, and looked up at Erwin. His teal eyes, though they were circled with bruises, were so wide and bright they held no secret as to what he was feeling. Eren was feeling guilty, but not that much. He was feeling angry, but was calmed down by the ride − and by eating.  
"I punched Jean."  
"If the headmaster is to be believed, you did more than that."  
Eren rolled his eyes.  
"Well, I never said how many times I punched him."  
He at least had the grace to look down when Erwin raised his eyebrow.  
"What happened, Eren? The truth, now."  
Eren bit down his hamburger, chewed, swallowed before answering.  
"He was being a little shit."  
"I hate to sound like Levi, but that makes two of you."  
His son chuckled sourly. There was something he wasn't telling. Erwin was about to ask but, as he often did, Eren interrupted him before he could.  
"Look, Dad, he was saying stuff about you."  
"About me?"  
Now that was a surprise. He doubted he'd seen the Kirstein boy more than half a dozen times in his life. Not really enough to make himself an enemy of his. Eren dipped his head, chewing loudly. He really was Hange's son in that. He could never eat anything properly. Maybe Erwin did turn into Levi sometimes, because he felt the sudden urge to tell Eren to eat without a mess for once. There was ketchup on his nose already.  
"About you and Levi," he finally answered.  
… Oh. That kind of little shit. A homophobic little shit. Erwin nodded, urging Eren to tell more.  
"So I hit him, and he hit back, and we fought, and like a couple minutes later they found us, and called you and Jean's mom, and that's it."  
"What did he say?"  
"Bunch of stuff, you know. That you were gay."  
"I bet he didn't use the word gay."  
"Yeah."  
"Did he say anything about… about Levi?"  
"No. I don't think he knows."  
"Mmh."

 

They ate the rest of the meal silently. Erwin did not like that Eren had been violent, especially not when they'd had so much trouble to get him to stop throwing tantrums when he was younger. But he also did not like his relationship with Levi to be a laughing stock, his love for his partner to be demeaned and belittled. Their little trio of lovers had not been easy, especially not once everyone had discovered that it wasn't just Erwin and Levi both loving Hange, but actually both men also loving each other. And his own youth certainly had not been that easy either before that. He wasn't out of the closet at the time, not even to himself, but he'd heard what kids could say, and he knew it wasn't pretty. He had never got himself into fights for that, but he could understand why Eren had, he understood that just fine.  
"You know, your father did a lot of what you did today when he was your age."  
"Mmh?"  
"Levi," he said, although it was rather obvious who he was talking about. "He used to fight all the time."  
Eren did not answer, but frowned and looked more sad than angry.  
"Because he's trans, of course, people are assholes about that, but also because he's bi. Some people took him for a girl, and thought he was a lesbian and didn't like that, and some people accepted him as a boy, but thought he was gay and didn't like that either."  
"I don't think Jean even knows that bisexuality is a thing."  
"If you want my honest opinion, I think Jean might be less than a hundred percent straight himself, but I might be getting ahead of myself here."  
Eren snorted his coke through his swollen nose. Ouch. That looked like it hurt.  
"What?!"  
"Nothing," Erwin said and took a sip of his diet coke quietly. "Just a wild guess."  
"Next time you take a wild guess, wait till I've swallowed my drink!"  
"Will do, son. Will do."  
"You crazy old dork."  
"I love you too, son."  
The ride home was a lot less tense after that.


	4. Cuddles interrupted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drabble 4: Levi comes home to Hange taking care of a sick Armin (4). He is not pleased with the state of their home.

Cute. Armin was so cute. Pink cheeks, soft blonde hair so thin it felt like flowing water under her hand that was massaging his neck to soothe his dreams, baby skin (he was four already but his skin felt just as peachy as it had all his life), big blue eyes that usually saw everything but were closed right now as he slept on Hange's chest, his little thumb in his mouth. Armin was a perfect little cuddlebug. She could stare at him for hours when he was like that, snuggling into her.

 

"Ugh. Disgusting."  
Hange giggled as quietly as she could at Levi's remark, to avoid waking her precious little Armin, and threw her head back from the end of the sofa to look at the entrance door upside down and greet her less than precious little husband. Slowly, carefully, she lifted a finger to her lips to shush him. To no avail.  
"You two are disgusting. What the fuck happened?!"  
She whispered as loud as she could so that Levi would hear her but quiet enough not to wake Armin.  
"Armin got sick on the way to daycare. I took a day off to stay here with him."  
"Tch. You stink, both of you."

 

He walked around the room, obviously trying to find some place to sit that wasn't touched by Armin's sickness. She followed him with her eyes, though she knew where this would lead. Poor little Armin had been  _very_  sick. He ended up standing in the middle of it all and frowning at everything because there was no haven of cleanliness left at all.  
"How can a tiny boy vomit so much?"  
She would have shrugged her shoulders but with a toddler locked around her, it was impossible.  
"You're the cook," she said. "You tell me what got him sick."  
Levi merely glared at her and she winked and blew him a kiss.

 

With all the care in the world, Hange wrapped her arms around Armin to secure him as she stood up. Sadly, the change of position was unexpected for her son and Armin stirred against her, rubbed his tired little eyes with his tiny fists and opened them.  
"Hey, sweetie. Slept well?"  
He shook his head lazily and snuggled closer to her. Her precious, precious little baby.  
"Aww, I'm sorry. But look, Daddy Levi's here!"  
Armin's eyes fluttered a few times, as if he barely recognized anything around him, and held up his little arms toward Levi.  
"Of course he'll carry you, sweetheart,  _won't you, Levi_?"  
Levi did not look like he wanted to carry a sick Armin with snot running down his nose and vomit covering his left side, but Hange gave him no choice. She shoved Armin into his arms and ran toward the bathroom, which was where she wanted to go initially anyway.  
"Tag, you're it!" she shouted as she slammed the door behind her.

 

Levi soon started banging on the door.  
"You filthy disgusting Four Eyes! Get back here immediately!"  
She laughed and could feel his glare through the wooden door, probably so deep and intense it would burn through if glares could do such things.  
"You should be happy, Levi! I'm taking a shower! You always say I don't bathe enough!"  
She untied her hair and ran her fingers through it — they quite painfully got caught into the tangles. Maybe she  _did_  not wash it enough. She was already naked and about to jump into the shower by the time Levi spoke up again.  
"Hange, open the door."  
"You forgot the magic word!"  
"Open the fu… freaking door. All of us need a… OH MY GOD, ARMIN, WHAT THE HELL?!"  
She swinged the door open to find an extremely pale Armin held as far from him as he could by an extremely disgusted Levi.  
"Mommy, I did it again…"  
A look at Levi's bile covered shoulder told her what he'd done exactly. At least, it was just that. Armin had not eaten a thing all day because he couldn't keep anything down. Better than nothing.  
"That's okay, sweetie. You're going to take a nice long bath with me and Daddy, alright?"  
"I told you, Hange! I told you when we took them in that I wasn't going to deal with sick kids! You didn't listen!"  
"Shush, gimme my baby and get naked. We're having family bath time! Isn't this fun, Armin? Isn't it?"  
Armin shook his head.  
"Oh, well. At least I'm having fun."  
She had a lot less fun when he threw up again in the bath with them.


	5. Poker Face

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drabble 5: Erwin and Mikasa (12) play poker. Erwin is not happy with the results.

Erwin sighed heavily and pinched the brink of his nose. This girl would be the death of him, he was sure of that. She was a devil inside the body of a twelve year old.

"I fold," he ended up whispering and he swore he saw the hint of a smile sketched on her lips − it was gone as soon as it'd come.

She drew the pile of chips toward her already huge pile while Levi started mixing the cards again. She never showed her cards when he folded − Levi had told her she didn't have to −, just piled her chips by type so they were all in order on her side of the table. It was only a game, Erwin told himself. Just a game. There wasn't even any real money involved. The chips were real, sure (courtesy to  _someone_ 's past gambling), but there was no money behind them. Then why was he so frustrated, if this was just a game? He groaned and both Mikasa and Levi turned to stare at him. They threw each other a glance, nodded, and went back to their business.

 

"You're cheating," Erwin said finally. "There's no way you're not cheating."

"Don't be dumb, Erwin, there's no way she could cheat."

"I never cheat," Mikasa confirmed in that precious quiet little voice of hers.

"It's impossible. You cannot be that lucky all the time."

Erwin was trying his best to keep his calm. It wasn't like him to feel that frustrated. He was  _never_  angry. But they both annoyed him  _so much_. It was Levi's turn to give a tiny little smile now, the shadow of a smile, really, a mix of fondness and taunting. He started dealing the cards again and Erwin suddenly decided he'd had enough.

"I don't want to play poker anymore."

Mikasa, who'd been glancing at her new cards with a completely stern face, shrugged and gave Levi her hand back. He didn't take it immediately, his gaze completely focused on Erwin's face.

"What's the matter, Erwin? Are you upset you've been losing all afternoon?"

"I'M NOT UPSET!"

The words had come out a lot louder than he'd expected. He  _never_  spoke that loud.

"You sound upset," Mikasa said and gathered the card pack herself, since Levi wouldn't do it. 

"You sound like a cheater!"

She said nothing and didn't even look fazed but he regretted the words instantly.

"… I'm sorry, sweetie."

He took her hand and she let him, but did nothing to further the contact.

"I'm not a cheater. I never cheat. I'm just better than you at poker."

 

For what felt like the thousandth time, Erwin sighed and pinched the brink of his nose.

"I have an idea," Levi said.

Erwin turned to him. Levi looked bored as ever, but from experience, Erwin knew that his facial expressions meant nothing at all, no matter what he was feeling.

"How about you play something else with her? Something you're good at?"

"… That's actually a good idea, Levi."

"Don't act all surprised and shit, boss. I have good ideas all the time."

Erwin chuckled.

"You're such a sore loser I'm afraid you'll get constipated out of spite. I'm just protecting your colon."

"Mikasa," Erwin changed the subject, "would you like to play chess with me?"

Mikasa shrugged.

"Whatever makes you happy, Dad."

 

Five games of chess, three games of Operation, seven games of Uno, two other games of poker just to make sure and twenty-three games of rock-paper-scissors later, and in the middle of a Monopoly game, Erwin was completely convinced. 

"Boardwalk with a hotel, you owe me 2000$," Mikasa said flatly.

"You're a witch," he said, looking down at his tiny bill stacks. There wasn't 2000$ in there, that was sure. "There's no way you can win every single game like that without magic."

Mikasa shrugged and shared the same look with Levi that she had thrown him every single time. What did that mean?!

"Out of cash, Erwin?"

"I'm mortgaging my railroads," he said, trying to keep his head high.

"That's not nearly enough for what you owe her."

"Do you want to stop, Dad?"

"I… I don't know…"

"Let's stop."

"Well, he lost anyway," Levi said.

Erwin glared at him, but Levi held his gaze and said nothing. They were brats, the both of them. Both stonefaced brats. He stood up, nodded at them politely, and went on a ten-mile run to calm his nerves, right there in his lazy Sunday sweatpants and T-shirt, in the cold November air. The fresh rush of the air around him always calmed his mind.

 

When he came back, Mikasa offered to play a game of chess. His favourite game. He accepted. Mikasa gave no sign of anything, but he did notice that she was making very obvious strategic mistakes during the game. After a little while, it became evident that it was on purpose. For a second, he thought he might say something, tell her that she didn't have to, but he met her eyes and saw her smile as she moved her piece on the board. He looked down.

"Checkmate," he ended up saying, not passing up on the opportunity.

It was selfish, he knew, because Mikasa definitely did not have to force herself to lose for him, but he just took that one victory and cherished it. After all, this was the only time Mikasa had smiled all day.


	6. Revenge is a dish best served inappropriately in front of indifferent parents

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drabble 6: Eren (16) has found a way to get back at Armin for telling on him. Will his plan go accordingly?

Eren's heart began to beat faster. He gave a huge grin to no one but himself. Finally he had found it: the perfect way to get back at Armin for telling on him about the motorbike accident −  _almost_  accident was how he would describe it, really, no one had died, but his parents had seen things differently. This was a gift from above, no less. He walked proudly into the living room with the evidence hidden behind his back, casually stopping next to Erwin on the couch.

 

Hange looked up from their chess game and smiled broadly.  
"Oh, it's you, little monster. Glad to see you're not sulking anymore."  
Oh, he wasn't sulking, all right. In fact, he'd never been so not-sulking.  
"Do you want to play the next game?" Erwin asked. "I know you're not really into board games, but I was thinking…"  
Eren could barely hold it in any longer.  
"No, Dad, I don't want to play."  
"I guess we'll never get any of you to enjoy chess except Armin," Erwin sighed with a smile.  
Eren's heartbeat went a little faster.  
"Well, funny you should mention Armin…"  
"Funny? What are you talking about?" Hange asked, still absorbed in the game, and moved her queen three squares across. "Armin's our son, we mention him all the time."  
"Well, you might be very surprised to know what's up with him…"  
Her brows knitted. Erwin moved a piece, knocking Hange's bishop off the board, and turned to Eren as well.  
"What's wrong with Armin? Did something happen?" he asked.  
"Is he hurt? Sad? What's wrong with my baby?!" Hange whimpered.  
Now  _there_  was the mother hen instinct Eren wanted to work from.  
"Oh, nothing's  _wrong_  with Armin. In fact, I daresay he's been having  _a lot of fun_. A very special kind of fun."  
He threw the used condom he had just found in Armin's paper bin onto the chess board.  
"This was in his room! Armin's been having sex!" he shouted.

 

For a second, no one said a thing. Then, all at once, Hange started to cheer, and laugh, and clap, and went for a high five with Erwin who reluctantly gave in. He picked up the chess pieces from the ground with a not-so-well-hidden smile curling up his lips. Then, with his ever so calm voice that Eren both loved and despised, he spoke.  
"It seems that I owe you fifty bucks, dear."  
"Ha ha ha! Didn't I tell you it'd be this Saturday? Didn't I? I  _knew_  he'd invite Reiner over if we left him home alone for the night!"  
"And you were right. I'm sorry I ever doubted."  
Hange was jumping up and down on her armchair, the chess game completely forgotten − not that it could really go on with a used condom in the middle of the board.  
"And he even used a condom. My baby is a proper responsible little man…"  
Her eyes were wide and bright with unaltered adoration.  
"We raised him well, Hange. We raised him well."

 

This was  _not_  the reaction Eren had expected. Staring at them, gaping, he did not even know how to react. After finally drawing the conclusion that they were not going to be mad at Armin for having sex with his boyfriend, he picked up his jaw, but the only thing that managed was a loud "What?!"  
Erwin and Hange turned to him, evidently surprised by his outburst.  
"What's the matter, sweetie?"   
"You're not going to punish him? Like you punished me?"  
They glanced at each other, then turned back to him.  
"Eren, what you did was endangering your life, Jean's life, and the lives of just about anyone walking on the street that day," said Erwin.  
"But…" Eren started.  
"What your brother did was enjoy the physical side of his relationship with his boyfriend, whom we all love very much," his father completed. "We are not going to punish him for that."  
" _But it's not fair_!"  
Hange sighed.  
"Eren, you know we love you, right? We grounded you because we love you. Can you please not try to have your brother punished at all cost, even for things that no one should be punished for?"  
The front door clicked open just as she went on.   
"Armin didn't do anything wrong, he just had sex with his boyfriend!"  
There was a loud squeak at the door and everyone's head turned to see Armin and Reiner in the hall. Armin's face was as red as the carpet on the floor and Reiner himself was slightly pink on the cheeks. Both looked like they wanted to go back the way they'd come.

 

"Armin, baby, we were just talking about you!" Hange shouted.  
Armin was resignedly staring at the ground as if he'd never seen anything so fascinating in his life.  
"We're not mad, son," Erwin said, but it did very little to lighten up Armin's mood. "Your mother and I are very proud you used protection like we taught you."  
"See, Erwin? I told you it would pay off to have the sex talk dozens of times!"  
"I never said it wouldn't, dear."  
Eren was staring at Armin, who hadn't so much as acknowledged any of them since the squeak happened. So it was that his brother was having sex now. He thought very little of it. 

 

In the end, it was Reiner who talked, after endless blabber on Hange's part.  
"Thank you for being so understanding, Ma'am. Armin and I have work to do now."  
Hange cackled.  
" _Work_ , is that how it's called now?"  
"We're not…" Armin peeped with his still high-pitched voice, "This isn't what… We won't… Not with…"  
The bigger boy blushed even harder, didn't say a word, took Armin by the shoulders and almost dragged him to his room.   
"Have fun!" she said.  
The door slamming shut was the only answer.


	7. Run Away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Armin (13) has something to tell Mikasa.

Mikasa stopped pacing, took a big breath, grabbed the phone from where she'd thrown it on her bed across the room, pressed on the name, was about to press Call, her finger hesitating mid-air…

But she heard a door slamming, what sounded like whimpering, and another door slamming. Armin's room. Then there was sobbing, loud and heartbreaking. A surge of protective instinct ran through her as she heard her brother's cries of despair and she dropped her phone again, for what seemed like the millionth time today. _Knock knock._  


  
"Armin, can I come in?"

  
She heard him scrambling to his feet, hurried, and walking to the door. A few seconds passed before he opened it. As soon as she saw his face, she saw he was trying to hide he'd been crying, but it wouldn't fool anyone. On the cheeks he'd evidently just rubbed, new tears were already flowing and forming new rivers against his pink skin.

She let herself in when she saw he wasn't going to say anything. Sitting on his bed, she patted the space next to her. Instead of joining her, he sat on his desk chair, his clenched fists on his lap, staring intently at the ground.

  
"Tell me what happened."

  
He raised his head at once and his big blue eyes filled with tears again. He didn't say anything, but she saw all the misery of the world in his gaze.

 

"Armin. What happened?"

  
He looked away and rubbed his eyes, then took a big breath and looked like he was about to speak, then said nothing. He repeated the process a couple times. Finally, he snapped out of it.

  
"I was at volleyball practice."

  
She gestured for him to come closer to her and this time, he did sit next to her and leaned his head against her shoulder.

  
"We were changing in the locker room and I don't know why, but I stayed a little bit longer than usual."

  
She wrapped an arm around him and he leaned into her.

  
"And the others left one by one until it was just me and Reiner."

  
Oh. Reiner. It was the elephant in the room that Armin had had a crush on his best friend for longer than anyone in the family could remember — a feeling that might just have been mutual, but Reiner was a lot less expressive than Armin so it was hard to tell for sure.

  
"What happened then?"

  
Armin's eyes were so wide they looked like two oceans dripping tears on her sleeve. He sniffed before talking again.

  
"We were talking, and he was sitting next to me, just like you right now, you know. And then... then he wrapped his arm around my shoulders and he was..."

  
He stopped speaking to cuddle closer to Mikasa and she held him there, right against her. She could feel his heart beat frantically.

  
"What was he, Armin?"

  
"You know... He was... He was tall, and handsome, and I was feeling so good with him there and then he just looked at me after saying something funny and I..."

  
Mikasa hugged him a bit tighter as he sobbed against her shoulder.

  
" _I kissed him_."

  
She waited as she held her brother, who she loved so very very much, through his crying fit, rubbing his back soothingly.

  
"What happened then?"

  
Armin disentangled himself from her hug to look directly at her face and bit his lip.

  
"I grabbed my things and ran away?"

  
"Armin…"

  
"I know, I'm gross, you don't need to tell me…"

  
Well, the snot on her shoulder was kind of gross, Mikasa wouldn't deny that. As for the rest, however…

She gave him a tentative smile, taking his hands into hers.

  
"You're not gross, Armin."

  
He sniffled and rubbed his nose.

  
"I'm not?"

  
_Well, you're not really proving my point there, you know, snotty brat._   


  
"Of course not. You just sound like you're in love."

  
Armin's chest was still heaving but it looked like his tears were finally drying up.

 

"I think I am," he whispered.

  
"Then you need to tell Reiner that."

  
"But what if… what if he's not gay? What if he hates me now?"

  
"Then it's too late and you owe him at least an explanation."

  
"Mmh…"

  
"Look, I really don't think he'd hate you for being gay. And you don't even know how he reacted, you left before you could. Maybe he wanted you to kiss him."

  
"I don't know, Mikasa. I just don't know."

  
"You'll never find out if you do nothing."

  
_Listen to yourself_ , she thought.  _How many times have you tried to call her and tell her? You're no better. At least Armin did_  something,  _he kissed Reiner._  


  
"Y _ou_  don't care that I'm gay, at least, do you, Mikasa?"

  
"Oh, Armin. Of course not. We all thought you were. All of us could tell you had a crush on Reiner."

  
"Oh…"

  
"I think Mom and Daddy Erwin even have a bet going on. You should probably come out to them at some point."

  
"I wasn't completely sure I was gay until today, actually…"

  
"You seem pretty sure now."

  
"Yeah…"

She took a big breath.

  
"You know, Armin, there's something I should tell you, too."

  
There again, the big puppy eyes her brother was so good at.

  
"What is it, Mikasa?"

  
He took her hand and rubbed his thumb across her palm. That felt good. It gave her the little push she needed.

  
"I think I'm gay, too."

  
If Armin was surprised, he didn't let it show. He just pulled her for a hug.

  
"I'm happy you told me that, Mikasa."

  
"But I don't want you to tell anyone!"

  
"Not even Eren?"

  
"Not even him."

  
They stayed in the comfortable silence of their confessions for a few minutes, happy to enjoy the loving embrace of a sibling. Armin was the one who break it and she didn't like his question one bit.

  
"Is there a girl you like?"

  
She thought of red-brown shiny hair, of a big mouth that was quick to laugh, to shout, big enough to eat an entire bag of chips in a matter of seconds, of beautiful brown eyes that expressed a whole range of emotions Mikasa never dared to let show, of hugs and the occasional cuddles and those rare kisses on the cheek that she didn't know the meaning of, of that cute faint accent that was so pretty yet that she always tried to hide, and Mikasa shook her head.

  
"No," she lied. "There isn't anyone."

  
"Okay," Armin peeped and sat straight.

  
"Are you going to call Reiner and talk to him?"

  
"Y..yes. I'm going to call Reiner," he repeated, as if to give himself the courage he needed.  
"Come and tell me how it went once it's done, will you?"

  
He nodded.

She went back to her room only to stare once again at that cursed phone she had forgotten for a moment, too short of a moment. Once again, she picked it up, and as she was going through her contact list, she heard Armin's timid voice on the other side of the wall. She closed her eyes and tried to breathe, but found that her heart had suddenly grown about ten times its normal size, it was pumping and pumping and beating and beating and she felt dizzy already. By the time Armin came to find her with a flushed face and a shy smile on his lips, she still had not pressed Call. Her own confession would wait for another day.


End file.
